In 1951, Richard Lyttle, son of Meeker Herald’s founder James Lyttle, served as president of the board for the Colorado Press Association. Last weekend at the first in-person convention we’ve had in two and half years, I was honored to step into that role for the coming year. The Colorado Press Association is 144 years old and serves 150 news outlets around the state.
We received six awards this year in the Better Newspaper Contest, five of which went to co-owner Caitlin Walker for ad design, page design, and for the Weekly News Roundup newsletter (if you haven’t subscribed, you’re missing out). Our former high school intern, Sophia Goedert, who has gone on to become an editor at George Washington University’s school paper, The Hatchet, received a first place award for student journalism for her feature story about Mary Strang. To say I’m proud of them both is a bit of an understatement. Contest entries this year were judged by members of the Michigan Press Association.
The convention is always something of a “reboot” for us, a reminder why we do what we do and its value, shared stories and advice from fellow journalists and leaders in the industry, and continuing education on how to improve what we do every week.
This isn’t a comfortable profession (if there is such a thing). The pay is marginal, the hours absurd, and we tend to be an easy target for people who don’t pay attention and then get mad when something shows up in print, or people who prefer “good press” to actual news. If you think of information like nutrition, public relations (PR) is the equivalent of candy. It tastes great and is fine in moderation, but if that’s all you eat you’ll end up informationally malnourished and weak. The fact there are now more people working in PR than there are in journalism may explain a few things about the state of our democracy.
Now, possibly more than ever, we need a balanced information diet, less PR (simple carbs) and opinion (fats) and more news (protein). Add in a little variety and you’re on track to better informational health.
By NIKI TURNER – editor@editorht1885.com
